I think that the two options should not exclude each other. For the immediate purpose of following the translation during the concert, I have witnessed the successful use of surtitles by Eric Banks in his concerts with the Seattle-based "The Esoterics." I personally think that surtitles are less of a distraction than looking down on a written page, and missing all the action. Besides, the lighting might be too dim for reading the printed program. And then there are those who might need reading glasses in order to follow their program, which is clearly an inconvenience. So, looking in the direction of the performing ensemble would be more desirable given the text is projected not too high, distorting the natural position of the reader's head.

 

However, providing translations in print, will stay with the listener after the concert, as a reference. This is especially true for less common repertoire, for which one may not find other versions on the internet or on CD sleeves.

 

Gabriel Dumitrescu, DMA

Musica Romanica

I have recently performed both the Bloch Sacred Service and Mendelssohn's Elijah using supertitles.  It was highly successful.

 

In the case of Elijah, which we sang in English, we interspersed images of artwork illustrating the story with the slides showing the text.  This made for a wonderfully dramatic presentation.  We produced this in cooperation with the Phoenix Art Museum.

 

The great advantage to supertitles is that they occur at the same time that the singers are performing the text, so the translation helps the audience understand what is being sung in real time.  This was especially important, it seemed to me, in the Bloch, which is highly episodic and where the piece is best understood if the listener knows what is being sung at each moment.

 

I strongly urge you to try this if you have the technology readily available.  Creating the slides is somewhat time-consuming but fairly easily done using Power Point.  In our case, we have to hire a screen and projection equipment, so showing supertitles is a costly enterprise--but worth the time, effort, and cost.

We've used them before and they were well-received by our audiences.  No one mentioned a distraction.

 

Nancy Menk

Encore Vocal Arts (Indianapolis) has used screens at one or both sides of the stage to project texts, translations, and pictures. The reaction has been mixed--some people enjoy it and find it helpful, some don't like it at all.

 

When I have been a member of the audience, I have often forgotten that the screens are there. The same thing happened when I saw a surtitled opera (in concert performance) at  Indiana University.

 

If you are going to try this, make sure that someone has proofread your texts and translations, that the focus gets your entire text on the screen, and that the person who is changing the slides not only has the score but is familiar enough with the music to keep in synch.

 

Faedra Weiss

Hi, Leonard.

 

I've never used supertitles myself, and have attended only one opera performance using them, so this is more general.

 

Intuitively it would seem obvious that they would be distracting, pulling attention away from the stage (in a theatrical production) or the music (in a concert).  But in this case, there is simply too much evidence that intuition is wrong, and many people have found them to enhance a production or concert.

 

In part this is because of a mind set that may be peculiar to Americans.  We are fixated on perfoming works in the original languages.  (I'm not arguing against it, and I'm quite familiar with the arguments on either side; in fact I challenge my students to think about it rather than simply accepting the received wisdom!)  My understanding is that in Europe it is much more common to perform both operas, musical theater, and concerts in the primary language of the audience, although if I am wrong I would appreciate a correction.

 

But aside from that, there are the additional questions of diction--often not an opera singer's or a chorus's strong point!--and of the musical setting, which can easily tend to obscure the words (as noted, famously, by the Council of Trent!).  And of course many of us are used to seeing subtitles either in movies or on TV.

 

But using supertitles simply in order to avoid "considerable paper in printing out the texts and translations" is simply not cost-effective!  Certainly PowerPoint has taken care of one of the formerly major expenses, assuming that you already have available (a) a computer and the PowerPoint program, (b) an experienced technician who can produce the slides to order, and (c) the required projector and screen, the former quiet enough not to disturb the patrons nearby and the latter large enough and outside the stage lighting enough to be readable.  (Large screen projections, either front or rear-screen, were being used for national sales meetings 40 years ago and more, but the very large slides had to be photographic emulsions on glass plates, NOT just small 35 mm slides, and the projectors had nothing like the brightness of modern projectors unless they were carbon arc projectors, and those were NOISY!)

 

In many, if not most, venues, the rental of the hall does NOT automatically include the rental of specific equipment, the salaries of the stagehands required to put it up, take it down, and mantain it, or the salaries of the technicians required to run it during your performance or meeting.  All those things may be available, but they will all be billed separately and the total, as David properly noted, can add up fast!  (And make printed translations seem VERY cost-effective!)  But the good news is that projections, using TV cameras, are now so common and their use so widespread that the equipment WILL be available if you have the money to pay for both the preparation and the run-of-show.

 

I it was interesting to read the posts from those who have gone beyond simple titles and are including what amounts to travelogues or 'son et lumier' shows.  These can be VERY effective when they are well done, but this isn't new technology, either.  When I toured in the John Denver orchestra back in the mid-'70s, projections involving both closeups of John and his band and background visuals were a regular part of his coliseum shows.  And the 'son et lumier' idea goes back AT LEAST to the Phillips Pavilion at the '58 Brussells World's Fair, with "Poèm Électronique" composed by Edgard Varèse, if not even earlier.  But this is a major step into a new collaborative art, and not just an expansion of a musical presentation.

 

And let me ALSO emphasize two things pointed out by more than one person:  Proofreading is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL!  And of course no matter how many people read proof, and no matter how good they are, the number of errors will always be at least n + 1!!!  But it's also essential for printed texts.  And the actual operator MUST be a musician who can actually read a marked score, and not just a technician who needs either written cues or spoken cues.

 

Bottom line?  If you can afford it, and if you have really good people to put it together and run it for you, go for it!  If not, you REALLY don't have to keep up with the Jones's, do you?

 

All the best,

 

John

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have used this in the past and it has worked well.  We took a little different approach by taking a sheet of 4x8 styrofoam (like you would use in home construction), painting it flat black, and hanging it just below the stage curtains - directly above the back row of singers.  We then mounted a projector (upside down) from a lighting bar a couple of banks ahead of the styrofoam.  The nice thing was that when the screen was not needed, because it was black, it faded into the curtain, but it was also ready to go when we did need it.  It was also lightweight enough that we didn't have to worry about weight hanging above the performers.  The powerpoint slides we created were black slides with white text.  You may have to do some expiramenting with your slides, but the black seemed to work well, even with the stage lights being on full power.

 

Definitely remember to proofread and have someone who knows the score running the slides - you almost can't proofread enough!

 

Chris Storm

 

 

I am also intrigued by this idea and Elektra has been thinking about this in recent months.   For four years in the early '90s when Vancouver Opera first used surtitles, I was hired as the operator, and we found few complaints about distractions.  On the contrary, it opened up the artform for many, many people and the purists found a way to ignore it if they wanted to.   I think our audiences would have the same reaction.  The technology has changed so much, but you want a way to soften the change of light from one screen to the next, as it can be quite jarring. Regardless of how you work the technology, I strongly encourage you to have a good musician running the display and doing a complete runthrough with you during at least the dress rehearsal.  They will need a marked score and light to read it.   Bringing the words up in synch with the energy of the music is actually a very subtle thing that can make or break the experience for the audience.

 

Elektra's motivation in considering this is mainly to go green and save printing costs.  I see so many people in the audience not reading all the pages we give them.  We're also thinking that the regular format texts and translations could go on our website as a printable pdf for people to download before or after the concert.  Could send some keen audience members to our site, which is always a good thing.

 

Morna Edmundson

Artistic Director, Elektra Women's Choir